Challenges and Emerging Perspectives of Quality Assurance and Teacher Education in Nigerian Universities: A Literature Review

1 Introduction

Studies (Kopnina, 2020; Lin, 2003; Shaturaev, 2021; Zhou, Li, Wu, & Zhou, 2020) have consistently shown and scholars (Fagerlind & Saha, 2016) have directly and implicitly referenced and affirmed the inexorable link between education and sustainable development of nations. While education is perceived to be closely associated with a nation’s growth and development, high-quality education is adjudged to provide the fundamental tool for technological breakthrough and advancement and invariably for the economic growth of any nation (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2014). This probably is the reason why countries globally strive to provide quality education for their citizens by devoting a percentage of their annual budgets to use and investment in the educational sector.

Raising and sustaining the right quality of education in institutions of higher learning has in the recent past become one of the core issues in the ongoing educational reforms worldwide. In concert with these worldwide educational reforms, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), cited in Vaccari and Gardinier (2019), called for and championed the cause that education is not only accessible to all but also the right quality of it is made available.

The call, cited above, perhaps undergirds the move, especially in the last ten decades, for a global demand for institutions of higher learning and other ancillary educational bodies and offices to devote a considerable amount of their energy to ensuring that there is the erection and maintenance of quality assurance (QA) outfit in their system. This will be responsible for ensuring and assuring compliance with standards and insisting on maintaining the right and acceptable quality of learning and learning engagement. This is because QA measure of this kind exists as one of the notable mechanisms identified for effectively pursuing and possibly realising quality education, especially in institutions of higher learning. However, understanding quality and the possible ways and means of assuring quality in education vary (Eboka & Inomiesa, 2015).

It is imperative to emphasise that quality education can be viewed as a set of elements that shape the input and output components of the production process of the education system that completely satisfies external and internal strategic constituencies by meeting their explicit and implicit expectations. While QA, however, points to meeting or conforming to generally accepted standards as defined by QA bodies or appropriate academic and professional committees (Ellis, 2018; Hayward, 2006).

Teaching, no doubt, is a serious activity undertaken by the teacher to produce desirable changes in the behaviour of learners. It is aimed at helping the learners in the learning engagement to learn new things or build on the already known. To teach means to give someone information; give a lesson particularly in school, to show someone how to do something (Lawal, 2012). This means that teaching is about giving information or guiding someone to use all the necessary avenues to learn new ideas or to improve on the existing ones. Education is the process of teaching, training, and learning, especially in educational institutions to provide and improve knowledge and develop skills (Hornby, 2012).

It is through education that many nations of the world attain reasonable heights of technological advancement required for rare innovations, creativity, and economic rehabilitation. Education, therefore, can be said to be the means by which the individual is developed to live effectively and efficiently in the society and contribute to its advancement.

Teacher education encapsulates the activities and processes engaged in the raising of the quality of teachers for the function of teaching and learning. Teacher education is a recurrent subject of discourse by relevant stakeholders in the Nigerian educational system. Hence, the importance of quality in teacher education is well recognised.

The Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN) (2014), in her national policy on education, affirms that no education system can rise above the quality of its teachers. In fact, nothing is as fundamental to learning as the quality of the learner’s teacher. Thus, teacher education (pre- and in-service) must generate quality teachers for quality teaching. But how well has teacher education faired, especially in its delivery and sustenance in the Nigerian universities? To what extent has the desired quality of teacher education in the Nigerian universities been achieved and maintained.

In recent times, there has been increasing concern about the consistently declining standard and quality of education in Nigeria with the quality of teacher education in the Nigerian universities not an exception (Ogunode & Musa, 2020; Ojedokun & Aladejana, 2012). For the possible negative ripple effects that the ailing quality of teacher education and its assurance in the Nigerian universities could have in Nigeria, the need to address and effectively stem it cannot be less important and direly urgent.

It is in recognition and appreciation of this need that the current researchers, anchoring it on the theoretical formulation of the Behavioural Learning Theory developed by Ivan Pavlov and popularised by John B. Watson in his book, Psychology from the standpoint of a Behaviourist, which was originally published in 1919 (Watson & McDougall, 1928), chose to do this review on challenges and emerging perspectives of QA and teacher education in Nigerian universities. This is in the bid to unearth and unveil the state of the teacher education in the country and the condition of its QA. It also identified the needed steps and actions that have to be taken for the QA teacher education in Nigeria deserves to be restored and effectively sustained.

Meanwhile, the Behavioural Learning theory is considered to have very huge relevance to this study’s effort to critically review the issues of QA and quality teacher education in Nigerian universities. The theory in summary simply says that how a student behaves is based on their interaction with their environment. It suggests that behaviours are influenced and learned from external forces rather than internal forces. Positive reinforcement is a popular element of behaviourism. The classical and operant conditioning observed in Pavlov’s dog experiments suggests that behaviours are directly or inversely motivated by the reward that can be obtained.

It is on this assumption, as maintained in the theory, that it is considered that students who receive positive reinforcement in the learning process or engagement are more likely to learn more effectively and much better, and retain information moving forward. It is against this backdrop of the theory this study affirms that, Nigerian teachers, with the rightful training from teacher training institutions and with very congenial school climate and needed instructional delivery facilities, are likely to utilise positive reinforcement to help students achieve better learning outcomes. Also, it is within this connection that the theory is found to have relevance to this research work.

To guide the review work, the following research questions were raised: what is QA and QA in Teacher Education? What are the challenges of QA in Nigerian Educational System? What are the challenges of QA in teacher education in Nigerian Universities? And what are the emerging perspectives for assuring quality in teacher education in Nigerian universities?

2 Methodology

In an effort to effectively engage the issue in question, the researchers employed the exploratory cum expository research methodology. By so doing, the researcher elicited data from wide-ranging sources: direct research outcomes, relevant secondary sources on teachers, teacher education, teacher education in Nigerian universities, QA in general and QA measures and practices in Nigerian universities, challenges confronting teacher education in the Nigerian university system and the like, and made extensive use of them. To retrieve and effectively employ the sourced data in the study, the researcher, within the period of 7 weeks, visited several databases that included but were not limited to Ebscohost, Google Scholar, Researchgate, and Proquest to access and retrieve published research reports and scholarly works or articles on the areas of interest for this work.

The researchers thereafter painstakingly weighed the contents of the data retrieved for relevance and persuasiveness and carefully applied them to the work. Aside from the aggressive use of the data retrieved from the aforementioned sources, the researchers also interacted with and interviewed experts conversant with the issue of teacher education in Nigeria and teacher education in Nigerian universities. This was done with the intent of shoring up wide-ranging relevant data and opinions on the issue of concern for careful coding and triangulation purposes.

In the coding and triangulation process, careful matching and differentiation were done with the data such that significant threads that emerged were carefully noted. Running threads or emerging thoughts in the pieces were carefully harnessed or organised such that what was found or observed, to the degree of their clarity and elucidatory input were carefully incorporated and applied in the final analysis and submissions in the work.

3 QA

In search of a deeper understanding of the concept “QA,” the treatment of quality is a precursor. Quality is the standard of excellence of something, often a high standard. By extension, quality is in conformity to requirements, and it is usually determined by our customers. According to Ayeni and Adelabu (2012), quality has been of focal interest to institutions, governments, non-governmental organisations, and the general public in Nigeria as touching on higher education, especially university education since the last three decades, or so. As a result, the concern for quality has been at the core of the motivating forces for reforms in education.

4 QA in Teacher Education

QA in education is the systematic monitoring and evaluation of teaching and learning to achieve educational goals and objectives (Ayeni & Adelabu, 2012). It is a means of ensuring best practices. It denotes the degree to which educational practices conform to established standards and the appropriateness of available inputs in relation to outputs for delivery in the system. It is about ensuring that the education programme(s) is/are properly aligned to the needs of the community for which it is provided.

QA is aimed at preventing quality problems. QA is a mechanism used to evaluate the efficiency and appropriateness of teaching and learning in schools so as to ensure the delivery of high-quality education. It is a holistic way of discovering and resolving problems within the educational system in order to ensure constant quality improvement (Jack, 2012). In sum, quality education assurance-oriented schools are characterised by core values such as quality learners, learning environments, curriculum content, teaching and learning processes, and learning outcomes (Eboka & Inomiesa, 2015).

Now, the essence of linking QA to teacher education is to facilitate educational transformation and enhance human productivity for quality education. Accordingly, QA in tertiary institutions, according to Oladosu (2012) as cited in Okpanachi and Okpara (2014) implies the ability of the institutions to meet the expectations of the users or products of the manpower in relation to the quality of skills acquired by their outputs (Ajayi & Akindotire, 2007).

QA can be linked to accountability as they are concentrated on getting the most out of educational systems and services as it points to effectiveness and efficiency in contexts, mission, and stated objectives. It is the process of monitoring quality and ensuring that standards are not only sustained but also improved upon.

QA in teacher education can be viewed from two perspectives: internal and external QA measures Oladosu, (2012) as cited in Okpanachi and Okpara (2014). The internal QA refers to the policies, mechanisms, processes, and certainly the attitudinal changes which, when affected by the institution (internally) to guarantee compliance with standards, accountability, and fitness of purposes, a certain level of quality operation is expected to be achieved or attained. It consists of steps that are meant to appropriate the system and processes to determine the weaknesses and possible solutions as a remedy.

The external QA, on the other hand, refers to the monitoring and evaluation of the agreement with roles and standards carried out by the statutory agencies from outside the institution. It examines the appropriateness of purpose and the effectiveness of the internal assurance processes used by the statutory agencies (Okebukola, 2010; Oladosu, 2012, as cited in Okpanachi & Okpara, 2014).

To ensure adherence to established principles and norms or standards, internal QA measures at teacher education institutes are typically subjected to external substantiation. QA is a broad phrase that includes all practices, procedures, and actions used to establish and uphold the value of education delivered. When it comes to ensuring high-quality teaching and learning, the importance of QA in Nigerian education cannot be overstated.

The obvious responsibilities of QA in Nigeria include the following: to support monitoring and supervision of education, to assess the quality of teachers’ contributions, to serve as indispensable elements of quality control strategy in education, to ensure how available financial resources could be utilised, to assess the level of adequacy of existing facilities for quality control, and to guarantee and maintain high standards of education at all levels (Ogunnode & Adanna, 2022).

5 Teacher Education in Nigerian Universities

In Nigeria, teacher education is generally seen as a process or training that deals with the art of acquiring skills in the teaching profession. Teacher education, stipulated as existing at the tertiary level of education, is to be provided both in the universities and in the colleges of education. Teacher education as conceived, provided, or received in Nigerian universities refers to the policies and practices designed to equip prospective teachers with the knowledge, attitudes, and skills they require to perform their tasks effectively in the classroom, school, and wider society.

Teacher education is a pre-planned and articulated set of events and activities that are intended to assist would-be teachers in acquiring appropriate knowledge, skills, the right kind of attitude, habit, and competencies required to enable them to enter the teaching profession and become resourceful, effective, and efficient teachers (Achuonye, 2017). In Nigeria, the goal of teacher education includes the encouragement of the spirit of enquiry and creativity in teachers and also to provide them with the intellectual and professional background that will be adequate for their teaching assignments and make them adaptable to constantly changing situations (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2014).

To guarantee the effective pursuit and realisation of this goal, the following objectives of teacher education in Nigeria are clearly spelled out: to develop teachers who are highly motivated, diligent, and effective in the classroom at all levels of our educational system; to further foster the spirit of inquiry and creativity in teachers; to assist teachers in assimilating into community and societal life; to strengthen teachers’ commitment to national goals; to give teachers the intellectual and professional background necessary for their assignment; and to make teachers flexible in the face of changing circumstances.

6 Challenges of QA in the Nigerian Educational System

The issue of QA in the Nigerian educational system is hydra-headed (Adekunle, 2016). In Nigeria, budgetary allocation to boost the educational system has been everything but impressive (Oluchukwu, 2015). This is undoubtedly the overriding source – directly or indirectly, of all issues appertaining to the challenges of QA of the Nigerian educational system.

According to Ekpo and Asuquo (2020), the Nigerian higher education landscape presents many paradoxes and contradictions. The number of universities has grown exponentially from 5 in 1962 to today’s figure of 174 devolving into 43 Federal, 52 state-owned institutions, and 79 licensed private universities. Recently, however, a good number of more private universities hovering over 30 were given license to operate. These are not immediately captured in this reference.

In furtherance of this line of thought, the same trend is replicated in other higher educational institutions like polytechnics, monotechnics, and colleges of education. With respect to the factors that account for the poor state of the country’s higher education sector, Bamiro (2016) observed that academics attribute the crisis facing the sector to poor governance, corruption, inadequate funding, and inexplicable lack of commitment and support to research and its deliverables.

Thus, the major challenge bedevilling QA in the Nigerian educational system is the inability of the government to perceive education correctly for what it is so as to encourage adequate funding. Hence, Bamiro (2016) asserts that it is important, apart from the general advocacy, particularly by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, that governments (State and Federal) should be allocated not less than 26% of the total national budget or 6% of the GDP to education as recommended by UNESCO. Although there is nothing sacrosanct about 26%, it only tries to show the need to be realistic in funding education in Nigeria.

Prudent management of higher education in Nigeria is frustrated by corruption and misuse of funds by university management (Oguntoye, 2015). This is part of the internal problems hampering QA in our educational systems. The high-handedness of Vice Chancellors often exacts crippling effects on the efforts of the libraries to uphold and contribute to QA of the system through the informed acquisition of information-bearing resources. According to Nkiko, Ilo, Idiegbeyan-Ose, and Segun-Adeniran (2015), the quality of teaching, learning, research, and general scholarship in any higher or tertiary education is proportionately related to the quality of its academic library. The library is the foundation for learning, teaching, and research activities, which in turn determine the quality of the graduates.

Other challenges identified as militating against QA in the Nigerian educational system include the following.

7 Emerging Perspectives for Assuring Quality in Teacher Education in Nigerian Universities

The need for QA in teacher education has to start with.

8 Conclusion

Proper teacher education is the background of any educational system. It produces the personnel that are required to function in all areas of national life and development process. If tertiary institutions are effective in preparing high-quality teachers, the students will perform better. Management and leadership of teacher education should set up standards and monitor performance to ensure quality. In this way, there is a need to redesign professional development, integrating the technology of this socially significant group of students towards building a greater nation. So, it becomes imperative that the suggested measures be taken into consideration now to restructure the teacher education programme for the ultimate realisation of educational goals.